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Two women, one holding a baby on her lap, sit on the long bench seat of an omnibus in this vertical, colored print. The women and their full skirts take up almost the width of the composition against the peacock-blue bench, which extends off both sides. The women and baby’s skin are the color of the cream-white paper. The woman to our left wears a tan-colored, high-collared dress, gloves, and hat. She looks off to our right, almost in profile. She has a round face and the hint of a double chin. One gloved hand rests on a cane. The other woman holds the baby and tips her head down toward the child. That second woman wears a tea rose-pink dress and a hat with areas of darker pink, fern green, and straw yellow. Both women’s black hair is pulled up under their hats. The baby’s ruffled white bonnet, blousy garment, stockings, and shoes are also the white of the paper, though the hair is picked out with yellow, the lips with pink, and the ball held in one hand with brown. The structure of the women’s bodices, puffy long sleeves, and long skirts as well as the baby’s clothing are outlined in black. A row of windows behind them, parallel to the top of the bench, open onto an arched bridge spanning a river with boats. To our left, the sandy water’s edge is lined with spruce green trees. Back inside, the panel behind the women’s legs is peanut brown, and the top of the omnibus is muted mauve purple. A mark with an oval, or a mirrored C, over an uppercase M, is stamped in royal blue at the bottom center of the print. The sheet is inscribed with graphite across the right half of the bottom margin. Text reads, “Edition de 25 épreuves Imprimée par l’artiste et M. Leroy Mary Cassatt."

Mary Cassatt

In the Omnibus, 1890-1891

Not on View

Medium

color drypoint and aquatint on laid paper

Dimensions

plate: 36.5 x 26.6 cm (14 3/8 x 10 1/2 in.)

sheet: 43 x 29.8 cm (16 15/16 x 11 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Catalogue Raisonné

Mathews and Shapiro 1989, no. 7, vii/vii

Accession Number

1963.10.250

Artists / Makers

Mary Cassatt (artist) American, 1844 - 1926

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

recto: below image at right in graphite: Edition de 25 épreuves Imprimée par l'artiste et M. Leroy / Mary Cassatt; at bottom left in graphite in later hand: 8957 Set of 10 R3; verso: none

Marks and Labels

recto: Mary Cassatt (Lugt 604); verso: National Gallery of Art

Exhibition History

1936: Mary Cassatt, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD, 1936, no. 30.

1965: Graphic Arts from the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965.

1967: Miss Mary Cassatt: Paintings and Graphic Arts, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, 1967.

1970: Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970.

1998: Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman, The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998-1999, no. 58, as Interior of a Tramway Passing a Bridge (shown only in Washington).

2001: The Unfinished Print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001.

Bibliography

1979: Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Graphic Work. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979, no. 145, iv/iv.

1989: Mathews, Nancy Mowll, and Barbara Stern Shapiro. Mary Cassatt: The Color Prints. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989, no. 7, vii/vii.

1996: Grieder, Terence. Artist and Audience. New York, 1996: 444, fig. 13.22.

1998: Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman. Exh. cat. The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998-1999: 83-84, no. 58.